a houston cast to love

Meet the cast of young Houston singles ready to mingle in Netflix's Love is Blind Season 5

It's time now to play one of reality TV fans' favorite games: "Heeeeyyy, I know her!"

Netflix has finally revealed the Houston cast of its smash dating show, Love is Blind — Season 5, and the group of 30 young, attractive singles look and sound totally H-Town — and are sure to be recognized by locals.

Fans can catch the Season 5 premiere — and the 30 locals — on Friday, September 22. As CultureMap previously reported, Season 5 of Love is Blind takes place primarily in Houston, mostly "in the city's urban core" with "city-centric experiences," Holly Clapham Rosenow, chief marketing officer at Houston First, told us exclusively. That means these singles should feel quite at home.

A 100-percent H-Town cast

Netflix revealed the cast via the Love is Blind Instagram page with quick interviews with cast members. At first glance, the 15 men and 15 women come off casual, down-to-earth, funny, and quite photogenic — in short, totally Houston.

Love is Blind Season 5 Estefania Estefania, a teacher and dancer, is "pretty perfect" (she's kidding).Photo by Monty Brinton/Netflix

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Here are the 30 Houston singles who are ready to mingle in Season 5:

Aaliyah - 29, ICU Travel Nurse
Carter - 30, Construction
Chris - 28, Project Manager for Commercial and Retail Development
Connor - 31, Geoscientist
Efrain - 27, Software Sales
Enoch - 27, Financial Advisor
Erica - 27, Marketing Manager
Ernesto - 32, Supply Chain Manager, Oil and Gas
Estefania - 30, Teacher/Dancer
Izzy - 31, Sales
Jared “JP” - 32, Firefighter
Jarred - 34, University Director
Johnie - 32, Lawyer
Josh - 32, Sales Rep
Justice - 28, Personal Trainer
Linda - 32, Talent Acquisition Recruiter
Lydia - 32, Geologist
Maris - 30, HR Specialist
Mayra - 25, Minister
Milton - 25, Petroleum Engineer
Miriam - 32, Scientist
Paige - 32, Stylist
Renee - 32, Veterinarian
Robert - 30, Special Education Teacher
Shondra - 32, Flight Attendant
Stacy - 34, Director of Operations
Taylor - 26, Teacher
Uche - 34, Lawyer / Entrepreneur

Their bios and occupations are a cross section of Houston's myriad industries and reflect the massive young professional talent here: many are scientists, geologists, veterinarians, lawyers, financial advisors, marketing professionals, nurses, and of course, oil and gas professionals and engineers.

Love is Blind Season 5 Connor NBD, geoscientist Connor says he's directionally challenged. Photo by Monty Brinton/Netflix

Pool guys or mailmen wanted

"I'm still single because I have a mouth on me and I don't apologize about it," — Maris, 30, a human resources specialist, shares during the interviews (aren't HR types supposed to be pretty diplomatic?). Regarding her single status, Aaliyah, 29, an ICU travel nurse, directs the question to her folks: "My parents would just say, 'You need to sit your ass down somewhere so you could actually fall in love with somebody."

We're not saying 32-year-old veterinarian Renee is desperate, but she did note that she "...could date the mailman or the pool guy — or I gotta get out of the house." (Note to mailman and pool guy, step your game up: she's on TV now.)

Looks like we can expect these kinds of interesting revelations during the 10-episode run from September 22 through October 13.

For the uninitiated, Love is Blind is a romantic social experiment hosted by celeb couple Nick and Vanessa Lachey. Singles meet, court, and get to know each other — before see what the other looks like. (A concept not unfamiliar to generations of Indian couples.) The "blind" aspect of the show finds the interested men and women dating each other in small "pods" (rooms) where they chat and flirt solely through a speaker.

Adding to the intrigue and suspense: couples get engaged before they see each other and can only gaze upon each other after an accepted marriage proposal. If things go smoothly, couples live together for a month, plan the wedding, meet each others' friends and family, and eventually wed if both agree at the altar — always with varied results. Heck, who're we kidding: things can blow up spectacularly.

Belching, No. 2, and getting handsy

We can't wait to be charmed by these 30 local charmers. Consider 32-year-old flight attendant Shondra: when asked what a partner would find annoying about her, she says she uses her hands to express herself — "it's just what I do." (Hey, how else are you supposed to point to the emergency exits."

Love is Blind Season 5 Taylor Taylor, a teacher, has a really ...'unique' bathroom habit. Photo by Monty Brinton/Netflix

Stacy, 34, a director of operations, may annoy a partner with the fact that she burps "a lot" — but not a bro who takes pride in a beer-and-burger-induced blast. Stacy will occasionally drop a "truck driver belch."

Connor, 31, a geoscientist, claims to be "directionally challenged" — ironic, as he sort of locates things for a living. (Hey, that's what Waze is for, right, Connor?)

And how considerate is sweet Taylor, 26? The young single teacher shares her bathroom etiquette — noteworthy for anyone hosting her at their house: "I go No. 2 with the hair dryer on." (So Taylor, not to get too personal, but do you bring the hair dryer with you?)

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Love is Blind — Season 5 premieres Friday, September 22 on Netflix.

Photo by Monty Brinton/Netflix

Memo to potential partners: Stacy, a director of operations, can belch like a trucker.

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess